The country's most elite boarding school has an Instagram that's like 'Humans of New York' crossed with a J.Crew catalog

The teenagers at Phillips Exeter Academy have some serious runway game. Mimicking the preppy style of a J.Crew catalog, they sport couture items and mix and match prints with ease.

The Exeter Issue is an Instagram account that showcases the best dressed students at the most elite boarding school in America. Inspired by the viral Instagram account Humans of New York, The Exeter Issue features street portraits and interviews gathered on campus.

In 2016, we spoke with The Exeter Issue's founder Rachel Luo, now a college freshman, about the blog's inspiration.

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"People often tell me that their goal before they graduate is to be featured on The Exeter Issue," Rachel Luo told Business Insider before graduating from Philips Exeter Academy.

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In fall 2014, the Houston native set out to create a fashion blog at her school. She wanted to give the portraits, which she mostly shot, more depth by adding quotes from her subjects.

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She recruited a handful of fashionable peers to form The Board, which helps identify students and later votes on whose threads make it to Facebook and Instagram.

Still, the school's commitment to diversity and its $1 billion endowment, which helps cover costs for students from low-income families, brings in teenagers from all walks of life.

The Exeter Issue aims to celebrate those differences.

"You see a lot of Timberlands in the winter and a whole bunch of Vineyard Vines come spring," Luo said. The Exeter Issue only features those "ordinary" looks occasionally.

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"I look for [outfits] that are a little more special, a little more outstanding," she said.

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The Exeter Issue gives students a chance to be vulnerable. "I'm kind of scared for the future — college and getting a job and whatnot," said Chris Agard, who graduated in 2017. "But I've learned that it's okay to be scared and even though I am I can still enjoy the ride."

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Sophia Oguri, a senior, shared a commitment to reaching outside of her social circle. "I have never been in a community that is this loving, even amidst everything going on in the world today, and I want to be sure to take full advantage of it," Oguri said.

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Fellow senior Erica Hogan writes for the school newspaper, The Exonian. "It lets me interact with people I otherwise would never talk to," Hogan told the Exeter Issue.

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Some students keep it simple. "I catch flights, not feelings," Charlotte Sununu, said.